Another burning question is food. Tania and I have come up with what we THINK we should bring and have made purchases to include dehydrated meals, beef jerky, oatmeal, granola bars, and even Starbucks via instant coffee packs (although this last purchase it only for me since Tania has some strange and rare deficiency in her taste buds that keeps her from enjoying the splendid taste of coffee...I feel sorry for her), yet we still don't really know what food will be available at the refuges.
But the greatest obstacle I have come across while planning this trip is my complete and utter inexperience when it comes to hiking. I have LITERALLY hiked one day in my life! This was a year and a half ago during my R&R from Afghanistan. My cousin Mike and I decided that we would spend an afternoon climbing Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. I had grown up staring at this mountain from afar with no desire to ever set foot on it. I was not an "outdoorsy" kid. I did play baseball and basketball and loved playing war with my Barbie's and GI Joe (they always had an affair once the war was over), but mountains and hiking never really caught my interest. It is funny to look back now, since I have developed a love affair with mountains ever since I picked up snowboarding a few years ago, but this hiking thing is still pretty new. I strapped on my new hiking boots and spent five hours exploring Mt. Tam. It was beautiful! When you reach the top you can see San Francisco to the south, Oakland and Berkley to the east, and on a clear day you can even see Point Reyes to the north. It was that moment, while standing on the top of the world that I decided to add Corsica to my bucket list.
View from Mt. Tam
Now one and a half years later and I have not made any progress with my hiking. You can see where I might be a little worried right now, just three weeks before I am supposed to leave. I have thought long and hard about the decision to just say "Screw it! Who needs any training?" The other part of me has thought of the altitude and how my body is going to react and perhaps I should do a test run through the Alps. I would like to tell you that I went with option 1, since it would have been a lot more entertaining to write about when things go catastrophically wrong in Corsica, but I have opted for option 2.
This past weekend I decided to drive down to Oberammergau where Chris is enrolled in a class at the NATO school (the lucky bastard) and spend a day hiking. The area is know for its hiking trails so all we had to do is pick an area and go for it. Since my first day in Corsica is apparently a 5,000ft ascent, we chose a trail that was close to our hotel with an ascent of 3,000ft. I figured this would give me a good taste of what to expect. We chose to hike the "experienced" trail because I like a challenge, and we were NOT disappointed.
The suck started immediately. I am not exaggerating when I say that there was no part of the trail that was flat. This monster was a constant steep climb on a very narrow path for 2.5 hours. I made it about 25ft before I started asking how much farther until we reached the top. By 50ft I was dragging ass and decided that I needed a pick me.
When I first started dating Chris I noticed that everything I did or said brought a look of surprise to his face. As we got to know each other better, my behavior started to have less of a startling effect on him which saddened me. However my favorite pastime, putting my life into song, always bothered the crap out of him which made me take great joy in it. So this day, to up my energy, I decided that singing the entire score from "The Sound of Music" was an excellent idea. I spent the next 30 minutes serenading the the mountain with the likes of "This hills are alive with the sound of Music" and "Climb every Mountain." I even snuck in "Edelweiss" and the "Lonely Goatherd" before Chris was begging me to be quiet.
The greatest think I learned during the course of this hike was that after about 20 minutes the pain will stop and you will actually start enjoying yourself. This was a relief, since in less than a month I will be hiking for 16 days!!! The trail we were on wrapped around the mountain and there is a point, at about 2,500ft, where there is a sort of ledge you can climb out to that gives you the most incredible view! I will not bore you on how it took me 10 minutes to build up the courage to crawl out on my hands and knees because of my fear of heights, but I made it our to the edge eventually. And I am not ashamed to say that I belted out "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga at the top of my lungs. I can't believe that Chris still chooses to hang out with me.
Chris on the edge
15 minutes later we made it to the top! What I love the most about Germany, especially in Bavaria, is that you can get a beer anywhere. There was a restaurant at the top (and a gondola that we took back down) where we celebrated our climbing feat with a delicious brew.
Bring on Corsica!!
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